At Geneva Motor Show this week Jaguar showed off its all-new I-Pace electric SUV – the emission free SUV due here earlier than expected in October. The Jaguar I- Pace will start in base form at $119,000, a highly develop and technical electric mid-sized SUV driven by a pair of Jaguar’s own electric motors. – each with 294kW of power and a massive 696Nm of torque, one for each axle for all-wheel- drive traction. The lithium-ion battery setup provides a driving range of around 480km – the battery pack located low between the axles to help its centre of gravity provides 50:50 front rear weight distribution. How long does the battery take to charge you ask – from zero to 80 percent of charge just 40 minutes on a 100kW DC fast charger, ten hours on regular 7kW AC charger. It’s no slouch with 0 to 100km/hour taking just 4.8 seconds.
The bespoke aluminium architecture of the I-Pace provides the greatest torsional rigidity of any Jaguar model. Whilst it’s been designed and engineered in the U.K., Jaguar Land Rover will build the electric I-Pace in Austria in a manufacturing partnership with Magna Steyr. When it arrives here in October it will join the compact petrol and diesel E-Pace which arrived in showrooms this week and the larger F-Pace SUV which has been Jaguar’s best seller here for the last 18 months. Whilst the electric I-Pace will not sell in big numbers I have no doubt the compact E-Pace in a wide range of 38 variants will quickly become Jaguars most popular model. I’m David Berthon

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